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Leadership Congratulates Workers as Track Work Completed on Qinghai-Tibet Railway

October 26, 2005

Vice Premier Huang Ju attended an October 15 ceremony in Lhasa marking the completion of track laying for the Qinghai-Tibet railroad, Xinhua reported the same day.

Vice Premier Huang Ju attended an October 15 ceremony in Lhasa marking the completion of track laying for the Qinghai-Tibet railroad, Xinhua reported the same day. President Hu Jintao sent a letter congratulating railroad workers, saying that the railroad would speed regional economic and social development and "strengthen solidarity of various ethnic groups." The railroad "involves an investment" of 33 billion yuan, China Daily reported on October 15, and will "attract tourists, traders and ethnic Chinese settlers" to the region. The journey from Beijing to Lhasa will take two days.

It is unusual for the state-run news media to acknowledge that the railway will attract Han settlers into the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR); Chinese authorities deny that the Han population of the TAR has increased significantly. Official Chinese census data for 1990 and 2000 appear to contradict the visible changes in ethnic Han presence that is evident in many Tibetan towns and cities; census figures show the Han population as decreasing in 10 of the 13 Tibetan autonomous areas in China, according to information available in the CECC 2005 Annual Report. Tibetans say privately that they believe projects such as the Qinghai-Tibet railroad and programs such as Great Western Development are drawing a steady flow of ethnic Han migrants into Tibetan areas, exerting pressure on Tibetan culture and heritage.

Railway officials will begin testing the tracks and signal apparatus by July 2006, and plan to begin commercial operations in early 2007. Railway ministry officials say that in five years the railroad will extend from Lhasa to the TAR's second and third largest cities, Shigatse (Rikaze) to the west and Nyingtri (Linzhi) to the east, a Xinhua news release reported on October 15.

Additional information about the Qinghai-Tibet railway and Chinese laws and policies that influence population change in Tibetan autonomous areas of China is available in the CECC 2005 Annual Report.